Cultural Dessert

'The Damned Utd' by David Peace

21 July 2008

David Peace's novel 'The Damned Utd' is an unusual book: it tells the tale of Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days in charge of Leeds United Football Club in 1974, reimagining events through Clough's eyes in a first person narration that reads like a very candid diary or autobiography. This narrative is interspersed with Clough's back story (bizarrely told in the second person) taking us from his playing days, through his early managerial experience, forward to meet the main story in 1974. Peace brings the familiar character of Clough back to life so vividly it is often difficult to remember you are reading fiction. The short alternating sections gripped my attention and whipped me through the book in two sittings. There is an enormous amount of swearing, drinking and smoking and anyone who is not interested in football might find it hard-going but, for me, it was completely compelling. Read alongside Gary Imlach's wonderful 'My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes' (reviewed here in January 2007) and Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', 'The Damned Utd' completes a detailed social history of football in England. In Brian Clough, David Peace creates (or re-creates) that most fascinating of characters - someone who is unredeemably unpleasant and unlikeable but for whom you find yourself totally rooting. Early 1970s football is just beyond my childhood memories and though I had a vague idea of the sequence of events in Brian Clough's career there was much for me to fill in. The structure of the book made for a very satisfying experience as the pieces gradually began to fall into place as I raced towards the bitter-sweet conclusion. An amazing book.

Labels: Books

posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:59 pm